Meet Hiro's heroes.
Mashima HERO'S—originally just titled HERO'S—is a manga written and drawn by Hiro Mashima as a crossover between Rave Masternote , Fairy Tail, and EDENS ZERO—all created by Mashima for Weekly Shōnen Magazine—in celebration of Shōnen's 60th anniversary. It began serialization on October 16, 2019 and lasted for ten chapters, while Kodansha USA began a simulpub of the manga on October 30, starting with the first three chapters.
Mashima HERO'S provides examples of:
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Rebecca and Pino warn Shiki against letting on that they're explorers from outer space so they can preserve the comparatively "undeveloped" culture of Natsu's planet. Rebecca also catches herself calling Natsu's world a planet before switching to saying "country".
- Alternate Continuity: The story is set in a different continuity from Fairy Tail's previous crossover with Rave Master and its Animated Adaptation (both of which had alternative events), evidenced by the fact that Haru and Natsu have never met each other.
- Artifact of Doom: Oasis is a Dark Bring stone from Rave Master that grants people great power, but also corrupts anyone who uses it. While Mashymre is somehow unaffected by this corruption, his student isn't, and he uses it to become the Big Bad.
- Author Avatar: Downplayed. Hiro Mashima loosely represents himself through Mashymre, a.k.a. the Creator, whose name is a corruption of Mashima's own (especially evident in its transliteration from Japanese, Mashumā). The big difference is that Mashymre is a Cool Old Guy, while Mashima was only 42 as of the manga's serialization.
- Badass in Distress: Homura, a Master Swordswoman from EDENS ZERO, is introduced here as a prisoner who was caught after she passed out from a heatstroke.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Genesis performs this on Haru's Blue Crimson, a dual-elemental sword of fire and ice, no less.
- Big Bad: Shinra/Genesis, Mashymre's disciple and a self-made Sieghart Expy who falls under The Corruption of the "Oasis" Dark Bring, which lets him achieve his dream of being the most powerful man in the world.
- The Bus Came Back: This is the case for the cast of Rave Master, who—apart from numerous background cameos in Fairy Tail—hadn't been prominently featured in an official manga by Mashima since an earlier crossover Omake in 2011, which received an Animated Adaptation in 2013. Averted with Fairy Tail, which has an ongoing sequel that runs simultaneously with this.
- The Cameo: While most cross-series characters have a major role, a few of them fall into this:
- A whole bunch of clones of Nakajima from Rave Master are featured as creations of Oasis in Chapters 1 and 2.
- Pino finds Rave Master's Bony the Starfish on the beach in Chapter 3, thinking he's an undiscovered species.
- In Chapter 6, nearly every other main character from Fairy Tail and Rave Master makes a small cameo fighting off monsters summoned around the world by Genesis: for the former, it's every named member of Fairy Tail except for Gildarts, Mest, and Kinana; for the latter, it's Shuda, Belnika, and Ruby in a random town.
- Witch, Sister, Hermit, and Rebecca's Happy from EDENS ZERO make a small but important appearance in Chapter 7 when contacting the entire group from their ship.
- Mashmyre is only one in a set of powerful higher beings from the temple of Maga. The contemporaries we see are George (the Supreme God), Tera (God of Diamonds), Seo (God of Divine Wind), and Kai (God of Eros): all stand-ins for famous Shonen Magazine mangakanote .
- Conflict Ball: Despite their excellent synergy against Genesis in Chapter 5, and Natsu and Shiki becoming great friends in the beginning, the three main protagonists split up in Chapter 6 after arguing over what to do next—Haru has to stop Genesis, but Natsu wants to pay him back on his own, and Shiki just wants to save Homura—and partly because the latter two are sore about accidentally punching each other in the face. They immediately run into each other the next chapter, and when it looks like they're about to tear into each other again, the girls give Natsu and Shiki a Dope Slap that immediately quells the whole conflict.
- Cool Old Guy: The Creator, Mashymre, is a friendly and humble old man who is the only character in Mashima's works to not only avoid succumbing to the Dark Bring's corruption (if only because it was already corrupting someone else), but also uses it for the selfless purpose of entertaining the people of his island and helping make their lives easier. He's also a Reasonable Authority Figure who listens to Haru's warnings about the stone's true nature and weighs the good and bad consequences that destroying the stone would have on the island.
- Crash-Into Hello: Haru is introduced to Natsu in this method after getting flung out of Genesis's castle and crashing skull-first into Natsu, with neither of them sustaining any sort of concussion.
- Crossover: Serves as one between Rave Master, Fairy Tail, and EDENS ZERO, the three major series Mashima created for Weekly Shōnen Magazine.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Genesis completely mops the floor with Haru, Natsu, and Shiki during their battle.
- A Day in the Limelight: The extra chapter, appropriately titled "Heroine's", focuses on all three of Mashima's leading ladies interacting with the rest of the girls and enjoying some R&R.
- Entertainingly Wrong:
- Natsu and Shiki's parties both assume Oasis to be some kind of location on True Island, judging from its name. Only Haru's party knows it's actually a Dark Bring. Subverted when it's revealed that True Island itself is a giant Dark Bring, thus making both sides correct in the end.
- Due to their similar attacks right down to a fiery Breath Weapon, Natsu assumes Let to be a Dragon Slayer while Let assumes Natsu to be from the Dragon Race.
- Expy:
- Genesis, Shinra's alter ego, is another in a line of expies of Sieghart from Rave Master, following Jellal/Siegrain and Mystogan from Fairy Tail, and Justice from EDENS ZERO. This isn't just extended to appearances, either, as he also uses Sieg and Jellal's techniques.
- The little girl Shiki saves during the monster attack on the village has the same hairstyle and hair decoration as Xiaomei, a character from EDENS ZERO.
- Fantasy: Rave Master and Fairy Tail both represent Heroic Fantasy, with Rave leaning closer towards Urban Fantasy, while EDENS ZERO is Science Fantasy. As a Crossover, this manga ends up meshing these aspects together.
- Fight for the Last Bite: Natsu and Shiki start off as enemies when they spot a single fruit on a tree and each claim for themselves. This doesn't last when Rebecca reveals an entire grove of fruits for everyone to share.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Natsu and Shiki start out squabbling over a fruit, which quickly erupts into a full-blown battle. Once Rebecca points out there are plenty more of the exact same kind of fruit, however, all hostilities completely vanish and they become friends.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Big Bad is a disciple from a tiny island who uses Oasis to gain all the wealth, power, and women he wants, all culminating with him turning himself into another Expy of Sieg.
- Fun with Acronyms: If you pay attention, every chapter's opening character/letter is part of a chain that spells out "HIRO MASHIMA" (the tenth chapter has to cram two letters in one).
- Gate of Truth: The island itself that the three parties visit, True Island, is said to be a place where the truth about the world sleeps.
- Genre Savvy: When black tentacles start appearing everywhere on the beach, Lucy and Rebecca know precisely where where things are going and fearfully brace themselves for the worst:Rebecca: I know this trope...
Lucy: Not the naughty tentacles... - Girlish Pigtails: Rebecca styles her hair into twintails, which helps make her stand apart from Lucy.
- A God Am I: This gets declared by Shinra after he reinvents himself as Genesis, realizing the potential his new Imagination-Based Superpower gives him.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Shiki is shown wearing goggles here, something he only occasionally does in his home series, though they serve no purpose in the story.
- Honor Before Reason: Part of the Conflict Ball between Haru, Natsu, and Shiki in Chapter 6 is fueled by Natsu's insistence on going after Genesis by himself, despite suffering a Curb-Stomp Battle together with the other two, purely to restore his guild's honor.
- Hot Springs Episode: The extra chapter features all of the characters taking a well-earned hot springs trip around all of the three main universes, with plenty of beautiful naked women to go around. As the designated fanservice chapter, there's also some Ship Tease thrown around the main heroes and heroines for good measure.
- Human Aliens: The crossover emphasizes that Shiki and his friends, while human, are still aliens to Natsu's world since they come from other planets.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Shinra is an unpopular, anti-social creep with dreams of fame and fortune he could never hope to have, and has perverted thoughts that he is painfully aware are what keep women away from him. It's for this reason that he's corrupted by the Dark Bring and turns himself into Genesis, an Expy of Sieg along the same lines as Jellal and Justice, purely because he's the coolest guy he can think of.
- Identical Stranger: Happy and Erza wind up being this to Shiki's crew by virtue of their Reused Character Designs in EDENS ZERO.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: The Oasis Dark Bring used by Mashymre, and later Shinra/Genesis, grants its user the power to turn anything they imagine into reality, whether it's creating people or objects out of nowhere, giving themselves special powers, or transforming themselves.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Implied. Dark Brings are universally depicted as purely evil stones that corrupt anyone who uses their power, no matter how good they may be beforehand. Mashymre the Creator, however, is a friendly soul who shows no signs of corruption despite claiming the stone has been passed along for generations. It's all but stated that using his Oasis Dark Bring for purely selfless reasons has allowed him to withstand the stone's evil—unfortunately, it's also indicated that this is why Shinra was corrupted instead just for being around him.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The manga contains mild spoilers for the middle and late portions of Rave Master, such as Let's full name (though not the significance of it), or the fact that Julia is one of the main characters when she was introduced as a presumed Posthumous Character.
- Logical Weakness: An imagination based power is based on the user's imagination. Their power is still limited by what they can imagine and by how fast they can use their imagination. Shiki, Haru and Natsu briefly overwhelm Genesis by attacking him too fast for him to react. Genesis is also limited by what he can imagine, most likely because of his lack of experience fighting people like Natsu, Shiki and Haru, and is impeded by lapses in judgment while riled after being pummeled by them. As such, in his desperate attempt to imagine power greater than theirs, he ends up using an attack from Jellal, Grand Chariot that is actually weaker than another attack from Jellal he used, Sema, which is Jellal's strongest attack.
- Lost Food Grievance: Natsu and Shiki's fight over the fruit is little more than a tug of war until Shiki cheats by taking a bite out of it, causing Natsu to start fighting with magic.
- Lost in Translation: One gag involves Shiki pointing out how the names of Sieg, Jellal, and Genesis all begin with the kana ji in Japanesenote . This gag is completely lost on Sieg, leaving Kodansha to settle for saying they all have a "J" sound, with a translation note explaining how "Sieg" fits into the joke. However, this method still remains clunky, as "Sieg" is derived from "Siegfried", a Germanic name that's normally spoken with either an "S" or a "Z" sound depending on the dialect.
- MacGuffin Title: Downplayed. The HERO'S in the title turns out to be HEROS—Helix Effect Radical Operation Searcher—a navigational device Weisz invents to bring all three fragmented parties back together.
- Meaningful Name: The "Oasis" Dark Bring lets its user create beings and creatures from their imagination. This is fitting, since oases are commonly depicted as mirages or hallucinations for people stuck in a desert.
- Mini Series: It's a short story of 10 chapters.
- Moment Killer: Mashmyre's emotional explanation about his origins and how he created Oasis is immediately undercut by his fascination with his leading ladies' bosoms. Lucy then lampshades it:All that just to talk about our boobs?!
- Mythology Gag: In the official translation by Kodansha, the Dark Bring is alternatively called a "Shadow Stone", the Dark Bring's altered name in the English dub of the Rave Master anime.
- Naughty Tentacles: Invoked and discussed when Shinra spawns countless black tentacles everywhere on the beach to "have fun" with the female cast members, knowing fully well that it's a sick fantasy and a huge reason why he's so unpopular with women. To his horror, the tentacles also have their way with Gray as well. Lucy and Rebecca are also all too familiar with this trope to the point of name-dropping it word-for-word, as well as the fact that it's a trope at all.
- Not Rare Over There: Natsu follows his nose to a tree bearing a single fruit, which leads to a fight with Shiki when the two grab it at the same time. Not long after they wage an epic battle over the fruit, Rebecca arrives and quickly points out an entire grove of the exact same fruits right behind her.
- Only Six Faces: Subtle differences aside, the artwork highlights just how little the facial templates of Mashima's characters vary among his main casts: the main male characters all have spiky hair and pointy eyes, female characters have big round eyes, secondary male protagonists have squintier eyes, etc.
- Poor Communication Kills: Let and Julia immediately go onto the offensive when they overhear Natsu and Shiki talking about Oasis, not realizing that neither of them are aware it's actually a Dark Bring or what it's capable of. When they see the two fighting monsters to save the townspeople, however, they start to see they were mistaken and form a truce.
- Production Foreshadowing: Seven months before it was revealed in EDENS ZERO, the cover of Chapter 8 gives away the identity of its Big Bad, Ziggy, by showcasing him among the likes of Lucia and Zeref, the Big Bads of their respective series.
- Production Throwback: The manga takes a crack at Mashima's penchant for Temporal Theme Naming when the three leads compare their names—Haru (spring), Natsu (summer), and Shiki (four seasons)—and then ask what happened to Aki (autumn) and Fuyu (winter). This prompts Happy to tell the reader that these two characters do exist, the former being the hero of Monster Soul, and the latter referring to Mafuyu from Mashima's Combo Squad Mixture one-shot.
- Pun-Based Title: The title alludes to the fact that it's a Crossover starring the heroes of Hiro Mashima's three major manga series.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: The Big Bad is the Creator's disciple who was corrupted by the Dark Bring his mentor selflessly used simply by being around him at all times, leading him to rebel and use the Dark Bring to indulge in his own twisted desires.
- Self-Deprecation: Hiro Mashima is acutely aware of the similarities between his own characters, and uses that as a source of comedy in the manga as the casts of his three series are constantly mystified by how much they have in common.
- Sinister Shades: The first indicator that Shinra is up to no good is the fact that he wears a pair of sunglasses.
- Slippery Swimsuit: In the first scene, Lucy goes swimming in the ocean and gets her bikini top stolen by Happy, who flaunts it around as "service". Lucy quickly gets it back after bonking him on the head.
- Three-Point Landing: Lampshaded by Mashymre after he uses Oasis to "stick a really awesome landing".
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Shiki doesn't wear a shirt under his jacket here like he normally does. Justified as he is visiting a tropical island.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: Most of the female characters on the island—barring Rave Master characters Elie and Julia—wear bikinis for the better half of the manga. As with Shiki being a Walking Shirtless Scene, this is justified and frequently lampshaded by how they're on a tropical island. Eventually, the girls change back into their usual outfits in Chapter 7 after agreeing that they're poorly dressed for the situation.
- Worthy Opponent: Julia and Shiki both compliment each other while fighting as enemies; the former is impressed by the latter's self-defense, while the latter just thinks the suplex the former used on him was awesome.
